Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Summer blockbusters

I didn’t like the last Star Wars installment, The Phantom Menace. Not that I spent a lot of time in chat rooms bitching about it with other Sci-Fi geeks, but I have had some heated discussions on the topic with other Star Wars fans.

I didn’t like the last Star Wars installment, The Phantom Menace. Not that I spent a lot of time in chat rooms bitching about it with other Sci-Fi geeks, but I have had some heated discussions on the topic with other Star Wars fans.

In my opinion, The Phantom Menace was childish, and lacked the strong characters that made the original trilogy so likable. I didn’t like all the gratuitous computer animation, specifically the pod race with the two-headed announcer, the robot soldiers, the Gungans, or the space/Naboo battle scenes at the end. I didn’t like Jar Jar Binks, or any of the animated characters for that matter.

I didn’t like the kid who played Anakin, the whole Immaculate Conception plot, or the concept of midi-chlorians and The Force.

I didn’t like the younger Yoda, or the whole idea of the Jedi order sitting around in padded armchairs in the middle of a huge city.

I didn’t like the dialogue, the acting, or the way the movie jumped around from place to place.

The one character I did like had one line and was cut in half at the end – it’s safe to say that Darth Maul won’t be back in the sequel.

All these problems and I only saw it once.

And yet I’ll probably still be first in line to catch the next installment in the series, Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which is opening on May 16.

It’s a must-see kind of movie that must be seen, even if I regret it and am condemned to spend the next three years complaining about it.

It will be a big draw, but will Attack of the Clones be the summer’s top movie?

Summer is a beautiful time, but from an entertainment perspective it’s also incredibly boring. Television is one rerun after another, and unless you are one of those people who can watch endless hours of Major League Baseball or golf, you’re not going spend a lot of time indoors. And the sun can’t shine every day.

That’s probably why movie studios wait until this time of year to release their big budget blockbuster motion pictures. Star Wars is just the tip of the iceberg. Between May and September, more than 60 major motion pictures will be released. Here are a few of the top contenders for the summer of 2002’s biggest picture.

www.starwars.com /episode-ii/

There are three trailers and a music video for Episode II, all of which are available on the Star Wars.com website. Naturally, as a Star Wars fan you’ve already seen them, but you might want to watch them again a few times before May 16 to get psyched, and to get ideas for costumes to wear to the premier.

You can also read Star Wars news, catch interviews with actors, and learn about the production of the movie at this site. Oh, and you can buy Star Wars merchandise.

www.spiderman.sonypictures.com

Watch out, here comes the Spiderman. If your Spidey-sense is tingling then like a lot of people you probably can’t wait for May 3, and the long-anticipated release of Spider-Man – for some reason, the movie Spiderman is hyphenated. Visit the Web site for the trailer, news, games, and contests. And, of course, to purchase Spider-Man merchandise.

www.meninblack.com

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones return to the Men In Black franchise five years later to battle aliens and each other. Part 2 premiers on July 3, and although it will have hard time topping Star Wars and Spider-Man, it will likely reap hundreds of millions and hang around in theaters until the fall.

At he site you can watch the trailers, play games, check out the aliens, technology and guns in the movie, and generally kill an afternoon getting back into the Men In Black mindset.

www.signs.movies.com

On Aug. 2, M. Night Shyamalan, the writer/director responsible for "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" is back again. ‘Signs’ is described as a thriller, which if you’ve seen Shyamalan’s previous two movies, is a welcome departure from his previous outings, which were incredible, but almost unbearably slow moving. Ordinarily this wouldn’t even count as a summer blockbuster, but when you consider that Shayamalan’s first two movies grossed more than a billion dollars in worldwide release, it’s easy to see why this movie is so eagerly anticipated.

Signs is about the worldwide crop circle phenomenon, and a family of farmers that awakes one morning to find these signs on their land.

www.austinpowers.com

The man in blue velvet is back on July 26 to do battle with the evil Dr. Evil and his henchmen in Goldmember. Has the secret agent spoof been milked to death, or is Mike Myers just warming up? This movie will be huge, no question about it.

www.scoobydoo.com

Frank, Daphne, Thelma, Shaggy and talking dog Scooby Doo come to life on the big screen, Flintstone’s style, but hopefully with much better results. Check it out on June 14.